Colorado Rapids 4-0 New York Red Bulls, America Still Awesome

By: Kyle | July 5th, 2008

Does anyone know who’s in charge over at the Rapids’ website? Check out this headline on the front page: Rapids completely destroy New York on Independence Day. They don’t seem to be to big on subtlety. You can’t really say they’re wrong, though.

Have you ever seen the And1 basketball competitions? They’re games of basketball with virtually no rules so that everyone can just do all kinds of basketball tricks. The game really isn’t the point. Well, watching the Rapids on the Fourth felt like And1 soccer (And Booking?). All four goals were absolutely filthy (I never thought I would say that about soccer until after last night).

The Red Bulls must be down in the dumps right now. They lost one of their best players to injury, another to Spain, get knocked out of the Open Cup by Crystal Palace Baltimore, and then get “completely destroyed” on the Fourth of July. Not good times.

As for the Rapids on the other hand, how about that 3-5-2? I say we keep it. In the past when Pablo was in the backfield, it was an act of desperation. Now it was a stroke of genius by Fernando (whom coincidently I saw stuck in traffic in the parking lot like everyone else on the way out of the stadium. Only in MLS). Look at our backfield: Facundo, Pablo, Ugo. Combine those three guys with having our right winger play back a little like they did with Terry last night, and we just don’t need that fourth defender. That allows for a five man midfield which results in the Rapids dominating the field. And think about that midfield: Mehdi to set it up, Colin and Terry to take it around the defense on the wings, and Christian and Nick between them to serve it up to the forwards (one of whom happens to be Tom McManus). Put Bouna between the posts (less then a goal a game allowed), and we’ve got one heck of a soccer club in Colorado. It’s kind of amazing that the Rapids are as low on the table as they are, but I guess four games winless will do that.

But that’s probably not something we’re going to have to worry about much longer from the looks of things last night. At this rate, how can the Rapids not take the West this year? This is the first time after a game where I’ve been high-fiving other fans and saying “all the way this year!” and was actually serious about it.

So now, thanks to a few other games going our way, the Rapids are back in the Western conference race, two points back from first place. Since the Rapids play the ‘Quakes next week, if Chivas come through against the Galaxy, we might have first place back sooner than we thought.

UPDATE: Upon further inspection of the standings, it would actually be impossible for the Rapids to get first place back next week. The best we can hope for after next week is a three way tie for first with a Rapids win and a Galaxy - Chivas draw. The good news though, is that there is a very real possibility of the Rapids holding first going into the All-Star break.